


What if Marinette Finished Introducing Herself? (Origins, part 1: Ladybug and Cat Noir)

by ShawnaCanon



Series: What If? (Episode-Based One-Shots) [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Identity Reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-17 15:34:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29594934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShawnaCanon/pseuds/ShawnaCanon
Summary: When Ladybug and Cat Noir met for the first time, she almost introduced herself to him with her real name.What if she'd actually done it?
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: What If? (Episode-Based One-Shots) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2174268
Comments: 14
Kudos: 252





	What if Marinette Finished Introducing Herself? (Origins, part 1: Ladybug and Cat Noir)

**Author's Note:**

> This is sort of a quick warm-up kind of ficlet. I've got this idea for going through the episodes and finding places where something could have gone differently, and just playing around to see what might have happened if they had. I'm making this a series so I can do more, but the fics will all be unrelated to each other (most likely). I might just do one now and then as a quick thing. Most will probably be quite short. Most will probably deal with identity reveals.

Marinette had already lost track of how many times in the last few minutes she’d wondered why anyone would choose _her_ to be a superhero. She couldn’t even leave her house without making a mess of things. What kind of superhero falls out of the sky, lands on her new partner, and gets them both tangled up in her yo-yo string? At least it also got tangled in his stick thing, which somehow helped prevent them from going splat on the street. Not exactly the heroic first impression she’d have liked to make, though.

Fortunately, Cat Noir didn’t seem to mind. He accepted her apology easily, and they untangled themselves so quickly that she was sure superpowers and magic did the heavy lifting, then he introduced himself.

“I’m . . . mmm . . . Cat Noir. Yeah. Cat Noir. And you?”

Marinette was so focused on trying to pull her yo-yo down from where it was still hung up on his stick, she was only half paying attention to the conversation. “I’m Ma—er”—she tugged her yo-yo; it didn’t budge—“Ma—” Another tug yielded no results, and with a flash of impatience, she pulled even harder. “Marinette,” she said through gritted teeth as she gave it one last tug. Suddenly the yo-yo came free, only to land hard on her new partner’s head. “Sorry! I’m so clumsy.”

Cat Noir rubbed his head and shrugged it off. “That’s okay, Marinette. But, uh, are you sure you were supposed to tell me your real name?”

“My what?” she asked, then gasped. Oh, no! She _had_ said her real name. And after Tikki had explicitly told her that their identities had to stay secret. See? She was still messing this superhero thing up so badly! “No! That’s, uh, that’s not my real name!”

His amused grin told her she was supremely unconvincing. “No sweat, Not-Marinette. Your secret’s safe with me.”

The loud boom of something very large causing trouble nearby interrupted them—which Marinette would have been grateful for if not for the alarming way a skyscraper swayed. When it fell over, Cat Noir leapt away to fight the supervillain. Reluctantly, Marinette followed.

#

Adrien’s first day of school was wildly eventful even before any classes had a chance to start. They hadn’t even made it past roll call before Stoneheart showed up again (because Cat Noir and Ladybug hadn’t done the job right the first time, but hey, everything has a learning curve), and it took some death-defying stunts on the Eiffel Tower and a (sort of) face-to-face showdown with the city’s new supervillain before they were able to get back to class. In the process, Adrien had fallen hard for his new partner, Ladybug. He’d been impressed with her the day before, but after seeing her stand up to Hawk Moth like she had, he was absolutely hopeless for her.

He’d started school for the first time, defeated a supervillain, fallen in love, and it wasn’t even mid-morning yet.

Really, it could only go down from there. Which was why he shouldn’t have been surprised when he walked back into class and got the cold shoulder from that girl who’d seen him picking gum off her seat (and thought he’d been _putting_ it there) earlier in the morning. She was in the seat behind him now for some reason, having switched with Chloe. Adrien tried to be friendly and wave, but the girl snubbed him hard.

Adrien wasn’t used to being rejected like that. Plus, he was here to make friends. Failing already hurt more than he would have expected. Sure, he’d made friends with Nino, but if this other girl already hated him, it was kind of a wash. Would the other people in class hate him, too?

He took his seat, and his feelings must have been all over his face because Nino told him, “Dude, you wanna make friends, right? Well, go talk to Marinette. You know, about the chewing gum.”

Adrien’s heart leapt into his throat. “Ma-Marinette?” he breathed. “That’s her name?”

“Yeah,” said Nino. “Oh, right, you haven’t had a chance to meet everyone yet.”

At that moment, Adrien didn’t care about ‘everyone’. He spun in his seat and gaped at the girl sitting behind him. Blue eyes, dark hair. She even wore it in pigtails. Could it be? There had to be hundreds of girls in Paris named Marinette. What were the odds that his new partner—the girl who’d just crashed her way into his heart—would end up sitting right behind him in class on his very first time ever going to school?

Super low, for sure.

But it _had_ to be her. The same hair, the same height, the same build, and those were definitely the same eyes.

Adrien felt his mouth stretching into a huge smile. It didn’t matter if she hated him right now. He could fix that. She was a kind and caring person; he’d seen that much in her already. She’d even saved Chloe’s life earlier today, despite there obviously being something unpleasant between them. The important thing was that Marinette was here, he loved her, and he would find some way to win her over.

If he could figure out how to get past the bad first impression he’d made. At the moment, he was only digging himself deeper. The look she was giving him told him he was really starting to weird her out with his staring.

“Dude,” Nino hissed at him, “I said talk to her, not creep at her.”

Heat washed over Adrien’s face, and he turned forward. “S-sorry,” he whispered back. “I’m . . . homeschooled.” It was pretty lame as far as excuses went, but it worked well enough that Nino chuckled and slapped a hand on Adrien’s back.

“Marinette’s cool. Just talk to her when you get a chance. I’m sure she’ll forgive you once she understands you’re not like Chloe.”

Adrien frowned, his mind momentarily taken off of Marinette. He hadn’t exactly been deluded into thinking that Chloe was the best that friends (or people) got, but she’d always been nice to him (in her own way); it didn’t feel good to hear people talk about her like she was obviously horrible. It felt even worse to see her behaving in a way that justified it.

Before Adrien could consider that any further, Miss Bustier came in and started roll call for the second time that day. He got to call out, “Present!” again, and he paid attention as everyone else was called, hoping to get a start on learning people’s names. That was how he found out that Marinette’s last name was Dupain-Cheng. Even though he couldn’t remember all of the first names in the class, much less the last names, he was sure he wouldn’t forget that one.

#

Once that Adrien boy stopped giving her the crazy eyes, Marinette leaned closer to Alya and whispered, “Seriously, what is his problem?”

“He’s a rich kid and a celebrity,” Alya responded. “That’s like twice the cray-cray that Chloe’s got going on.”

Marinette groaned softly and sank down a little in her seat. “Ugh. I wanted _less_ Chloe in my life this year, not more. Now I’ve got Chloe _and_ He-Chloe.”

Alya bumped her shoulder. “Look on the bright side. You’ve also got more Alya than you did before.”

That made Marinette smile. “Yeah, you’re right.” She also had more Tikki. Marinette had only just met her kwami, but she thought the little, red being seemed like a nice . . . person? . . . to have as a friend.

And she had more Cat Noir. She still thought he was an overly flirty jokester, but he’d given her a pep talk when she’d doubted herself, so maybe there was more to him than it first appeared.

Class was refreshingly boring for a while, until the first break came. As everyone stood to leave, Adrien spun around to face her, that weirdly over-excited smile back on his face. “Marinette, can I talk to you for a sec?”

She jerked back and shot Alya a panicked look. What was he playing at? Marinette had the horrible suspicion that he was grinning because he’d thought of some other trick to play on her and was going to pretend to be friendly in order to set her up for it. “Uh, I have somewhere I need to go,” she said, nudging Alya out the other side of their bench seat, trying to follow her so she could avoid walking past Adrien.

“It’ll only take a minute!” Adrien assured her.

Alya was quick to catch on to Marinette’s discomfort, bless her. “Sorry . . . Adrien, was it? My girl and I have plans. Maybe later.”

“Pleeeease?” he whined. Like a little kid. And he gave her puppy eyes.

Marinette sighed, her shoulders slumping. Maybe it would be better to just get it out of the way, or he’d be bothering her all day. “Ugh, it’s okay, Alya. If it’s just a minute. I’ll catch up to you.”

Alya’s eyes narrowed, analyzing whether Marinette really meant that or not. When she determined that she did, Alya’s gaze slid to Adrien in warning. “All right,” she said, speaking to Marinette but still glaring at Adrien. “I’ll be waiting for you on the stairs.” Close enough to hear if Marinette shouted for help.

Most of the other kids in their class, as well as the teacher, had already left the room. Nino was standing by the door, and he seemed to be smiling as he watched the exchange. That gave Marinette pause. She didn’t know Nino well, but she had known him for a while. He was a good guy, and he’d been talking to Adrien earlier. If Nino thought it was a good thing that Adrien wanted to talk to Marinette, maybe she wasn’t about to get set up for a trick.

Nino followed Alya out of the room, closing the door behind him, which left Marinette alone with Adrien.

She crossed her arms and gave him the most intimidating ‘don’t mess with me’ look she could. Like an exuberant puppy, Adrien wasn’t fazed by it in the slightest. He hopped up the step to her level and grabbed her by the arms, his smile so big that he was practically all teeth. In a hushed sort of whisper-shout, he said something that made her heart skip a beat in shock.

“I found you, my lady.”

Marinette jerked back, out of his grip. “Wh-what?”

He didn’t grab her again, but instead, he clasped his own hands in excitement. “You’re Ladybug!”

 _No. No no no no! Come on!_ She’d only barely started and already she’d somehow screwed up the secret identity thing? She’d not only given Cat Noir her real name, but she’d somehow slipped up in a way that let _this guy_ figure her out? How was she so hopeless? “Wha—I—No, I’m not!” she protested weakly.

“It’s okay!” he insisted, then pointed at his own face. “Don’t you recognize me, too, Milady? It’s me! Cat Noir!”

Her eyes narrowed instantly. So, she _was_ being set up for a trick. The He-Chloe must have seen the appearance of the superheroes as a chance to play this really stupid joke on her. He hadn’t figured her out at all. The panic that had overwhelmed her was replaced by anger.

“Ha. Ha,” she said harshly, then grabbed her bag to leave. “Nice prank. I need to go.”

The smile fell off his face so fast, it was as if it had never been there. “Wait! Please!”

Even though she’d already turned her back to him, something about the plaintive tone of his voice made her stop and look at him. How could she be harsh to him when he sounded so pathetic? Then again, models were a lot like actors. Maybe he was just good at manipulating people.

But the wounded, vulnerable look on his face tugged at her heart. “Sorry,” he said softly, his eyes averted as he rubbed at the back of his neck. “I forgot for a second that you hate me.”

If this was an act, he was _good_. “I don’t . . . I don’t hate you,” she said, letting her bag slip off her shoulder and onto the desk. “I just don’t like bullies, and I especially don’t like _being_ bullied.”

One corner of his mouth pulled up in a small smile. “Yeah, I know you don’t. We may barely know each other, but I know that much about you. It’s part of why I love you.”

Marinette’s mouth fell open. “You _what_?”

He winced. “That was too sudden, wasn’t it? Sorry. This is my first time going to school or, really, interacting with people my age at all. Except Chloe. I’m not very good with social stuff.”

“Yeah, speaking of her, how close _are_ you and Chloe?” Marinette prodded.

“We grew up together.” He sounded uncomfortable about it. “Until today, she was pretty much the only person my age that I knew. That’s why . . . that’s why I didn’t want to throw her under the bus about the gum earlier.”

Doubt crept further into Marinette’s mind. Was there a chance that Adrien _wasn’t_ a He-Chloe? Putting gum on Marinette’s chair and letting someone else take the fall for it was definitely something Chloe would do. “You . . . really were just trying to take it off, weren’t you?”

“Yeah.” He rubbed at his arm, his eyes flicking to her and away uncertainly. “You can ask Nino. Or someone else. Most of the other kids saw it.”

Marinette remembered Nino’s smile at seeing them talking. If he had seen what had happened and Adrien was telling the truth, then it made sense that Nino would be happy that she was giving Adrien a chance to make up. The truth of what had happened was obvious when she thought about it that way, and she suddenly felt super guilty for being so hard on him. “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you or give you a chance to explain,” she said softly.

Adrien met her eyes, and she noticed how incredibly green his were. “So . . . are we good?” he asked with a small, uncertain smile.

She giggled. “We’re good.” Then she remembered something and stiffened in surprise. “But if you weren’t playing a trick when you told me you’re Cat Noir . . . ”

He brightened, the huge smile once again taking over his face. “I wasn’t! Joking, I mean. I really am! And you’re Ladybug! Isn’t it amazing!”

She instinctively recoiled from the accusation. “What? How—how could you know that? I mean, what makes you think that?”

He leaned closer and said quietly, “You gave me your real name when we first met. Remember? After that . . . well, you look so much like Ladybug that it _can’t_ be a coincidence.”

No one else could possibly know that she’d flubbed her initial greeting with Cat Noir like that. Which meant this guy really was her partner. Marinette slapped her hands over her face and groaned. “I _did_ screw everything up.”

Adrien laughed and touched her arms lightly, like what he really wanted to do was pull her into a hug. “No, Milady. At least, if you did, I’m glad. I’m so happy that we know each other in our normal lives.”

“Why?” she asked, peeking at him between her fingers.

There was such softness in his gaze as he looked down at her. “Because you’re the girl of my dreams, and now I can get to know both sides of you.”

Marinette felt herself blush, and it was suddenly hard to look him in the eye. “You’re such a flirt,” she accused.

“I mean it.”

He sounded so sincere that she had to look up at him.

“Being Cat Noir might bring out some sides of me that don’t really get to let loose in my normal life, but I meant everything I said to you earlier, Ladybug. I might be a little bit of a flirt—”

“A lot of a flirt,” she corrected.

“But only when I’m in costume. And that doesn’t mean my feelings for you aren’t real.”

She stepped back, out of his reach. “This is insane, Adrien. We _just met_. You can’t have feelings for me. You don’t even know who I am.”

“I know enough.” His soft smile took on enough of a cocky edge that she could actually see the resemblance to Cat Noir in him for the first time. “And I’m sure you’ll like _me_ once you get to know me.”

“We’ll see about that,” she teased.

“I’ll take that as a promise.” He winked at her, then took hold of her hand and raised it to his lips, planting a light kiss on the back of it.

A strange zing shot through her skin at the contact, and her heart did an erratic little dance. _Whoa. That was strange._

Confused, she took her hand back and grabbed her bag. “We’d better get going, partner, or Alya will come in to make sure you haven’t done something horrible to me.”

Adrien looked delightfully happy as they walked toward the door together. “Marinette?” he said when she had her hand on door handle to open it. She stopped and looked at him in question. “I’m glad I found you so quickly. I don’t think I could have stood being so close to such an amazing girl and not knowing it.”

She laughed. “You wouldn’t have known, so it wouldn’t have bothered you.”

He considered this. “I think I would have known. Deep down.” His hand found hers and gave it a squeeze. “There’s something special between us, Marinette. I can feel it.”

For some reason, Marinette had no desire to pull her hand out of his. In fact, she really, really liked how his skin felt against hers. Her heart did another weird little skip, and she fumbled her words. “Yeah, I it fee—I mean, it—I—I do, too. Thanks for splain—for explaining yourself. I’m glad I know. Even if my kwami’s definitely going to chew me out when we get home.”

They left the room together, and Marinette didn’t realize she was still holding Adrien’s hand until they met up with Alya. Her friend gave the two of them a look of complete shock, her gaze zeroing in on their joined hands, and asked, “What the heck happened in there?!”

**Author's Note:**

> This fic didn't actually go how I'd intended it to. What I had meant to happen was that after Adrien revealed himself to her (and convinced her he was telling the truth), she would just think Adrien was the silly flirt that she perceived Cat Noir to be, landing him solidly in the friendzone and never having the moment where she fell for him. Which would give them an entirely different dynamic going forward (or, at least, would extend their LB&CN dynamic into their Adrien and Marinette lives/relationship) and give Adrien an uphill battle in trying to win her over. But while I was writing it, Adrien had to just be so Adrien and the two of them are so meant for each other that it ended up like this. But if anyone wants to take my original idea and run with it, feel free. I'd still kind of like to see that.


End file.
